This week
showed some fine acting by almost every player involved. But one
particular storyline really stood out more than the others in terms of
its power and its poignancy. Care to guess which one it is?

Shawn/Belle/Philip/Mimi/Victor/Kate: Right now, Claire’s at
death’s door, which would be an ideal time for the truth about her
paternity to come out, and then Shawn could get to hold and say
goodbye to his baby daughter. Right? Wrong. Although Victor told
Kate this, Kate still wouldn’t tell the truth. Well, she
almost told Philip until Belle went on that little tangent about
hope. And then, Victor was only stopped from telling Shawn by the
news that he and Mimi were getting married. He must’ve seen how
complicated things would get. Shoot. So close. Oh, well. Philip
and Belle are still the couple they shouldn’t be and Shawn and Mimi
are now engaged, which I should be happy about, but I’m
surprisingly not. Guess I’m just upset that Shawn and Mimi had barely
declared themselves as a couple before getting engaged.

John/Marlena/Alex: Well, as it turns out, Lois really is
the dangerous woman here, as she was about to stab Marlena to death
with scissors while she was sleeping. She was saved only by the sound
of a gunshot from John’s gun as he shot Alex, whom he thought was
trying to hurt Marlena. I thought at first that Alex was dead from
falling off the building, but just like Marlena during the Salem
Stalker storyline, the awning over the front entrance of her apartment
building broke his fall. But he’s in critical condition right now.
Now, Lois is about to go on the rampage and try to kill both Alex
and Marlena while she can. At least now, I know what kind of
back-story Lois has — Alex and Marlena really were a couple
back during their medical school days, and Lois was the jealous other
woman in love with Alex. Feeling shunned by him, she developed this
“if I can’t have him, no one can” complex and thus tried to off both
of them. Now, in the present, she’s still sworn on getting her
revenge on them. I think this storyline’s taken a somewhat
interesting, if not ridiculous, turn.

Nicole/Austin/Sami/Lucas/Carrie: Just like last week,
Sami’s planning to use the knowledge of Carrie being the CEO of
HighStyle and Austin’s now officially taken it over to drive a wedge
between them. Lucas, meanwhile, is waiting in the wings to catch
Carrie when she falls after she hears this news. I hate to say this,
but I am almost done trying to maintain my interest in this
storyline. This definite Sami/Austin/Carrie/Lucas redux is, if I may
be quite frank, for the birds. Except for the drunken Nicole and
Eugenia thrown into the mix, of course.

Frankie/Jennifer: Only saw them once this week, but it looks like
they’re doing what Jack wants — growing closer. Which is fine, except
for the fact that Jennifer’s probably being more resistant of it than
Jack expected her to be. But those scenes in the shower were a
little funny, if not quirky. But the fun kind of ended when Jennifer
pretty much wigged out after coming so close to kissing Frankie.
Other than the shower scene, nothing else grabbed my interest this
week.

Bo/Hope/Max/Chelsea: A very tragic accident just took place here.
Chelsea, after taking her eyes off the wheel for a few seconds while
driving Bo’s SUV, has run down poor Zack, who wandered into the street
on his own while looking for a “kitty.” Of course, when she stopped,
I thought she saw what she’d done. She didn’t, unfortunately. She
just focused on the damage she’d done to the car and assumed she just
hit a pothole. I was so sad when I saw Hope find Zack in the street.
My heart practically went out to her. Those scenes were so poignant
and well-played by Kristian Alfonso (Hope) that I thought I’d cry.
She definitely deserves an Emmy this year. I’d also like to recognize
Renée Jones for showing us Lexie’s emotions for having to treat her
former son. The scenes in the operating room were especially hard to
watch, knowing how much her own heart had to be breaking. Chelsea,
meanwhile, had better learn a little bit of responsibility from this.
No, wait — a LOT of it, considering what’s just happened.

Alice/Caroline/Doug/Julie: Frankly, as happy as I was to see them
all make appearances this week, I’m upset that all they’re usually
around for is to lend support these days. While I really love all
four of them, they need something to do with them, and I’d really like
it if they did.